ASK Tan Hock Soon what the toughest part about being his own boss is in the food and beverage (F&B) industry, and he will tell you that his job is not glamorous at all.

"In F&B, it's long hours. Your body must be able to get used to standing about 10 to 12 hours. Everything is repetitive so you have to cook 200 bowls a day. We have to do everything. We wash the rubbish bin when nobody sees it after closing. The weather also affects us. If it's too hot, people stop coming," Mr Tan told SGSME in a recent interview.

The founder of Ramen Taisho, who has opened a food stall in Maxwell Food Centre selling ramen for two years now, runs the business with his wife, Kalene Chung.

Before he moved to Maxwell Food Centre, where rental is now about 70 per cent lower, he was operating a stall in a food court in Clementi, and that had compelled him to improve on his standards of cooking ramen.

"We chose Clementi because they offered us a lease of one year. I was thinking: Why not tie myself down (for) one year... I'm quite grateful to them. If not, I (would have given) up this F&B (venture). Because of the contract, we just go on," he said.

The endeavouring entrepreneur revealed that of his many business ideas, including introducing soda machines for home use, Ms Chung only approved of starting Ramen Taisho.

Before that, the pair went into a nail art business that eventually became an online business. However, their sales took a hit when Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba dominated the online retail market.

Mr Tan said that sales volume has dropped 90 to 95 per cent since four to five years ago. Although it is not their primary focus, the duo is still continuing the nail art business.

"We're doing 5 per cent of what we did 12 years ago," he added.

Mr Tan has been doing research on ramen since 2013, and he was inspired to go into this venture by his previous trips to Tokyo, Japan, where he met one of his mentors. He has another mentor in Osaka.

It was also in Tokyo that he decided on the name of his stall.

"When I was in Japan, the first place I went to was called "Taisho". It's my friend's apartment so I just took (the name)," he said.

To manage his startup cost, Mr Tan turned to government grants including those from the Productivity and Innovation Credit Scheme that funded about 90 per cent of his cost to buy machinery, and SkillsFuture Singapore.

According to Mr Tan, his noodles are "almost sold out" every month, and he records about S$20,000 to S$25,000 in sales a month. In a good day, Ms Chung and him can make a maximum of 180 bowls of ramen.

When they were in the Clementi food court, they made the ramen and the broth themselves. At present, due to space contraints of their stall in Maxwell, they have outsourced the production of the ramen to a contractor according to their specifications.

Mr Tan said that it takes at least a week to two to make a good and tasty bowl of ramen that he sells at S$7.80, as the seasoning requires that amount of time to produce the flavour.

Most of his customers used to be office workers but that has shifted to mainly tourists who make up the dinner crowd.

Still, he feels that he is making too little profit each month and is not in favour of his 20-year-old son taking over the business in the future.

"We are making about S$6,000 in profits so I don't think I want my son to do this. We're hoping something else will happen, like if we can scale up the business," he said.

Mr Tan and Ms Chung's son is training with the Singapore Hotel and Tourism Education Centre, otherwise known as Shatec. He is planning to go into the hospitality industry.

Despite the hawker culture's lack of glitz and glamour, Mr Tan is not giving up on trying to find a way to scale up his business.

For one thing, he has used online channels to get more visibility. Ramen Taisho has started to tie up with food delivery apps such as WhyQ and Plum, and also has a Facebook page, but Mr Tan doesn't think the latter is effective enough as promotions on Facebook are one-off and he can't get enough customers who will return.

Another approach he is considering is getting investors to come on board.

"We are not looking at just money. We want someone who can help us scale or see something in this business that I don't see. His experience or connections might help us. We've been approached by some people... but it's not really suitable," he said.

SGSME understands that the parties who have approached Mr Tan are well-known food groups from Japan and Hong Kong.

Going forward, Mr Tan is aiming to open other outlets or restaurants in a few years' time, and that will be funded from his own savings. He might consider investors if they "agree not to interfere with the operations".

Looking back and considering his family and the risks he took to start the business, he said with a hearty laugh: "(I was) afraid of course, but I like to be afraid."